Wilhelm Caspari (oncologist)

Wilhelm Caspari (born February 4, 1872 in Berlin , † January 21, 1944 in the Litzmannstadt ghetto (Polish Łódź )) was a German cancer researcher who was a victim of the Holocaust .

Life

Caspari came from a merchant family, his father was Protestant, the mother of the Mosaic faith. He himself was originally of the Mosaic denomination and was baptized Protestant in 1899. Caspari graduated from the Royal Wilhelms-Gymnasium in Berlin in 1890 . He studied medicine at the Universities of Freiburg and Berlin, passed the medical state examination in 1895 and was awarded a doctorate in the same year in Berlin with the dissertation "On chronic oxalic acid poisoning". med. PhD . In 1902 he qualified as a professor at the Royal Agricultural University in Berlin and was initially assistant to Nathan Zuntz at the Animal Physiological Institute of the Agricultural University in Berlin. In 1902 he became a private lecturer , in 1906 he was given a teaching position in nutritional physiology and finally in 1908 the title of professor. In 1909 he was appointed head of department at the Agricultural University in Berlin. From 1914 to 1918 he did military service during the First World War and then became a member of the Institute for Experimental Therapy in Frankfurt am Main, where he has headed the cancer research department since 1920.

In November 1935 all Jewish employees, including Wilhelm Caspari, were dismissed. While his four children (three sons, including the zoologist Ernst Wolfgang Caspari , and one daughter) were able to flee abroad, Caspari stayed with his wife Gertrud, née Gerschel (born 1884 in Berlin; died 1942 in the Kulmhof / Chelmno extermination camp ; marriage 1907) in Frankfurt. Both were deported together to the Litzmannstadt ghetto in 1941 . Caspari belonged to a sought-after professional group in the ghetto and was employed accordingly. Wilhelm Caspari died on January 21, 1944 in the Litzmannstadt ghetto.

Stumbling stone in front of Paul Ehrlich Str 42 for Caspari Wilhelm

Wilhelm Caspari was one of the most famous German cancer researchers. He left an extensive body of work in the field of cancer research with a focus on chemotherapy, nutritional physiology, radiation effects and immunity conditions.

A stumbling block in front of the Georg-Speyer-Haus in Frankfurt am Main reminds of Wilhelm Caspari .

On the occasion of the 100th birthday of Goethe University , another stumbling block was laid for him on October 17, 2014 at Bockenheimer Landstrasse 99.

literature

• Renate Heuer , Siegbert Wolf (ed.): The Jews of the Frankfurt University. Campus, Frankfurt 1997, p. 409 f.
• Monica Kingreen: Forcibly abducted from Frankfurt. The deportation of the Jews in 1941–1945. In this. (Ed.): “After the Kristallnacht.” Jewish life and anti-Jewish politics in Frankfurt am Main 1938–1945. Campus, Frankfurt / New York 1999, pp. 357-402.
• Thorsten Kohl: Wilhelm Caspari. Cancer research, nutrition and mountain climates. Hentrich & Hentrich, Berlin / Leipzig 2019, ISBN 978-3-95565-324-8 .
• Ingo Loose (arr.): Berlin Jews in the Litzmannstadt Ghetto: 1941–1944; a memorial book. Topography of Terror Foundation, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-9811677-6-4 , p. 50 f.
• Andrea Löw: Jews in the Litzmannstadt ghetto. Wallstein, Göttingen 2006, p. 256.
• Biographical lexicon of the outstanding doctors of the last fifty years. Supplements and supplements 3rd vol. Hildesheim / Zurich / New York 2002, p. 233 f.
• Reichs Handbuch der Deutschen Gesellschaft - The handbook of personalities in words and pictures . First volume, Deutscher Wirtschaftsverlag, Berlin 1930, ISBN 3-598-30664-4

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Biographies of outstanding doctors of the last fifty years . Supplements and supplements 3rd vol. Hildesheim, Zurich, New York 2002, p. 234.
2. ↑ According to Monica Kingreen's research on the deportation of the Jewish population of Frankfurt am Main from 1941 to 1945, Casparis must have come from Frankfurt to Lodz with the first deportation on October 19, 1941; the two subsequent deportations in November 1941 did not follow Lodz. (Cf. Monica Kingreen 1999, p. 358 ff).
3. ↑ “In the laboratory of a ghetto hospital [he] pursued his research. He also gave lectures on the connection between diet and the diseases common in the ghetto. Later Caspari created tables and graphics in the statistical department about the mortality in the ghetto. ”Cf. Andrea Löw: Juden im Getto Litzmannstadt . Göttingen 2006, p. 256. In the Biographical Lexicon of Outstanding Doctors, p. 234, it says that he was “called in to medical help in the German army hospital under guard”.
4. ↑ pei.de ( Memento of the original from July 25, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.